Need an idea for your secret pal's next gift? Here you go!

So this month I’ve been suggesting springtime ideas for the secret pal who loves to garden. In addition to the goodies I’ve already suggested (birdfeeder + birdseed, gardening tools, etc.), here are a few things that I plan to give my secret pal teacher friend this month:

Audubon Society stickers–Teachers can always use stickers as prizes, if not for other things.

A Bird-Shaped Moisture Meter–These devices help you test the moisture of the soil before watering. They’re best for indoor plants, but I suppose they can be used outside as well.

Outdoor Thermometer–I think I mentioned this a couple of posts back, but you can find them very reasonably priced. You can get an ordinary one for your secret pal’s garden, or a decorative one like the bird-shaped one in the link I’ve provided.

As I typed this blog post, I’ve been looking through the bag of goodies I’ve bought. There’s only one thing left to mention: a rain poncho. Those little packaged yellow rain ponchos that people can pack around in their purse–that’s what I’m talking about. It comes in handy in the spring, when a rainstorm can hit unexpectedly. I’m going to include this with my other gardening goodies, in a gift package.

And that’s really all I have for the gardening gifts. I might skip next week’s posting, because honestly, I’ve got enough here to last me into May without any problem.

I hope my ideas are helpful!

If you’re an English teacher, like me, and you’d like to see all my cool assignments and stuff online, here’s the link to my academic blog. I hope you get something good there too.

In conjunction with my April gardening gift ideas, I’m going to give my secret pal some bird-lovers’ gifts. I found this simple window bird feeder at Fred Meyers for eight bucks. That will be the first gift I give my secret pal, with regard to bird feeding.

Then, for the days that follow, I’ll be giving him a few additional bird-related gifts:

Now the second of these gifts will be something I can spread out over several days’ time. You simply buy a big bag of bird seed for, say, six to ten bucks, at a gardening store. Then get some pretty, decorative cellophane (or tulle) and curling ribbon. Bundle the bird seed into fist-sized bunches and wrap it with curling ribbon. Be sure to put a gift tag on it that says, “birdseed,” so your secret pal doesn’t think it’s for him/her to eat!

And like I said with last week’s gift, you might include some other goodies, like packages of garden seeds or pots for plant starts. That might be a cute way to give your secret pal the birdseed too–inside a plant start pot with a curly ribbon around it and a gift tag explaining what it’s for (to go with the bird feeder you gave as a first gift).

The hand-painted wooden bird house is a fun little gift. You can decorate it with your secret pal’s name, his/her favorite color, or something silly (like camouflage print, if he likes to wear camo or shamrocks if she’s Irish). This makes the gift very special and personal.

If you’re an English teacher, like me, and you’d like to see all my cool assignments and stuff online, here’s the link to my academic blog. I hope you get something good there too.

This month I’ll be giving my secret teacher pal gardening gifts. It just so happens that my secret pal has a degree in agriculture/horticulture, so gardening-type gifts are right up his alley.

Of course there’s the traditional gift of trowel, transplanter, and cultivator. Here’s a link to a set from Fiskars, the folks who are famous for making nice scissors. But honestly, you can sometimes find these garden tool sets at your local dollar store (if you’re hard up for cash). If you buy a set of three, like this, you can give one the first week, another the second week, and the final tool on the third week–spread them out like that.

The same is true of garden gloves. If you buy a set of three, like you see in this link, you can spread out the gift-giving over the course of three days or weeks.

So you could fill the entire month of April with these little goodies. Heck, seeds cost next to nothing, so why not include a small pack of seeds with each little gift? Bundle them together with a ribbon or top them off with one of those sticky-backed bows. Put a bunch of things in a plant-start pot. It can look very cute.

If you’re an English teacher, like me, and you’d like to see all my cool assignments and stuff online, here’s the link to my academic blog. I hope you get something good there.